Juarez church must remove message on mountain

Another giant message is being put in the mountains overlooking Juárez. Translated, the message at right, still being worked on, will say "50 years of his Apostolate, S.J.F." the initials are for Samuel Joaquin Flores, leader of a Juárez church The older message at left was put up in 1987 by a group of churches and is repainted every few years. (Rudy Gutierrez — El Paso Times)

A Juárez church now has until June 13 to erase the huge white-lettered message that it started painting on a the Juarez mountainside a week ago.

Juárez officials on Wednesday gave La Luz del Mundo church until mid-June to clean the mountain. The city's director of the Department of Urban Development, Eduardo Varela Díaz, said the deadline extension is for 20 business days starting Monday.

The agency will supervise the clean-up and is recommending that members use pressurized water with a biodegradable solvent to clean the rocks, he said.

"Turning the painted rocks is not a satisfactory solution," he said.

Church members on Tuesday began turning some of painted rocks around as a first step of the cleaning process.

REPORTER

Lorena Figueroa

The final plan includes sanding the rocks to their original color, they said.

Last week, Juárez officials stopped the church from painting a second message on the mountain because the group did not get a city permit beforehand. The city gave the church five working days to erase the message. The five-day deadline was Tuesday, according to city officials.

Church members said they had until Friday even as they were seeking an extension.

The cleaning began late Monday right after church members, dressed in white, used white bed sheets to temporarily complete the intended phrase, which was set to honor the church's leader, Samuel Joaquín Flores.

The message was supposed to say "50 años de su apostolado S.J.F. (Samuel Joaquín Flores)" — 50 years of his apostolate S.J.F.

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When the message writing was stopped it read, "50 años apostol S.J.F."

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